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Storage Issues

By Skean Dhude

One of the biggest issues I have had with my prepping is acquiring and storing the items I have put aside. There are several reasons for this and I have spent some time and money actually working out and implementing what I think is best for me and mine.

The hardest issue to work around is the financial issue. Actually affording to buy the items you want. There is very little you can do around this bar saving up but sometime you can look at the cost of the individual items that you are looking at. Sometimes good quality is not worth the extra cost and having several tools instead of one can be an advantage. If your very expensive lifetime tool is stolen or lost then a spare cheaper one would be handy. I have several times bought cheaper tools and when money came free bought the one tool I really wanted. For some things you just want to buy the best. You need to examine each item and make that call on finances and item usage.

Next up is items that are subject to legal restriction. Regardless to how stupid these restrictions are and in our mickey mouse country there are a lot of them you need to keep them in the back of your mind. Depending on the punishment then you can make decisions on these items on a one to one basis. Getting a firearm and risking jail for 10 years may be an issue but risking a fine for having illegal attachments to an off road vehicle may be acceptable to some. Your call, I have made my choices.

The next one, for me, is the actual storage of the items. Are they perishable? If so you need to have some way to check and replace as necessary. The items all need to be wrapped and made secure from vermin and protected from damage either by people rooting around or by the elements. I store most of mine in the 55L packing crates that are commonplace for moving within businesses. They are solid, stackable and pretty well vermin proof. Individual items within are stored in shrink wrapping and plastic wrap. Foodstuffs are stored in cooking oil pails. I don’t tend to replace all my foodstuff but will purchase anew retaining the only ones as well. Each item is catalogued in a spreadsheet and when the container is full I print off a copy for the file so I can access the lists off line. I store my books slightly differently as the ones that I use and look at I have on my bookshelves with the remainder are stored in those collapsible boxes. Again, all are catalogued. I’m anal like that.

Which brings me to my next issue. Storage of my storage boxes. It isn’t as simple as just sticking them under the bed as I have a lot of boxes. Some can go in the loft and I have a large amount of water, food, camping kit as well as other items I want at hand up there. I have several bug out bags ready to go but I have elected to bug in and so I need to store what I can close at hand. I’ve plenty of space in the loft but not as much as I need. I really need my own warehouse or large barn. I do have a few critical items stored at alternative sites like the woods but that is the exception for critical items if I have to bug out and everything there is duplicated at home. Storage of the items not under my personal protection has always been an issue with crime being what it is as well and the fact you can’t set traps for these thieving scum bags. Not yet anyway.

So currently I have a full loft, a large front room and a garage full of stuff with some off site duplication. Although by the middle of this year I will have cleared the front room and put it back to use as I’m building a workshop out the back and can move some of my stores, the tools, out there as well as the lathe and other sundry tools.

If I get any more I need to move to a barn. A converted barn should do me fine. Just need to win the lottery.

This means all my preps are close to hand and can be protected, well as well as you can here, and I can access them when I want although the way they are stored means it will involve heavy lugging if I’m looking for a crate packed away first. They are not meant to be used for general use and if I do need something I’d tend to buy one instead unless it is impractical. Preps are preps.

Since the move i have moved a lot of stores into a new revamped shed , its full floor to ceiling and listed in, a book hanging inside there …size is about 8ft x 16ft x 7ft tall, with the other stuff (on site) that will need to be moved ….i have to create more room ,at a minimum of another shed of a similar size at the very least….i will still be short of room even then….the access will be moved to other locations but harder to control …if they is ONE thing i have learnt (the hard way) is rotation and regular inspections even though well packed protected you simply MUST inspect ….no good if preps have gone bad a week a month before you depend on them, i have thrown away plenty …this is no brag just shows a lack of inspecting stuff so do not make MY mistakes.

I am building a new workshop this year that will empty a shed and leave space for preps. That should sort out my issue, for the time being anyway.

I do check my preps but am more inclined to get new perishables on a yearly basis than remove old stuff. Exceptions are when they are corrupt and may corrupt other stores. Otherwise I keep out of date stuff.

I spent about £150 on some second hand industrial staging built to stack palletized goods..with the addition of some 45mm thick timber as a surface.This gave me two runs of three tiers of shelving, 9 feet high and 12 feet long (designed to hold 24 euro pallets max 1 metric ton each)These are sited in my old carriage house. 220L drums stand under the bottom shelf as dry storage of bulk foods along with 3×1000 Litre palletised tanks for drinking water storage. I have no issues about storage….my issues are with organisation and rotating out goods before their use by date. Fuel is stored in a building which is separate from the main house along with petrol powered toys like chainsaws and quad tractor..

All mine are on shelving as well. Seemed the best way to split the space up then when that was full I put crates in the walk spaces. I still have an issue with storage which will be resolved when the workshop is built.

That issue in storage of placing most needed at hand and those not so needed at the back – you need a PhD for that. You have to anticipate future need in medium and long term. It does take some engineering.

I have spent significant time thinking about where everything goes. Anything I need my hands on is pretty much in reach with items I might need or perishable and need checking being at the front of the storage and items that are non perishable and I’ll only need in an event at the back.